AI Espionage: U.S. Accuses China of Distillation Tactics

The United States has leveled serious allegations against Chinese AI enterprises, asserting that these companies have maliciously duplicated technology from American firms. This development surfaces just before a crucial meeting between the leaders of both countries, potentially impacting diplomatic relations. According to U.S. officials, Chinese companies like DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and Alibaba have employed a technique known as distillation to train smaller AI models using data from larger American AI models, including those from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google’s parent company Alphabet. The officials suggest that these actions were likely executed with knowledge from the Chinese government. The timing of these…